Leading Innovation Summit 2026

Pre-Conference Workshop - 25th March

09:00 INNOVATION FOR GROWTH MASTERCLASS

If growth is the outcome, transformation is the process, and strategy is the methodology... Where does innovation come into play?

In the mindset and approaches that unlock differentiated strategies, effective transformations, and sustainable growth. Leading innovation means successfully accelerating the rate at which your company (i.e. your people) can:

- productively absorb, respond, and anticipate changes in the operational environment,
- generate, test, and validate hypotheses for internal and external value creation in light of those changes, and
- continue to achieve the financial results needed to sustain future operations.

This one-day masterclass will explore innovation as a customer-centric, creative, and experimentation-driven approach to transformation and growth. This course will enhance your skills in driving a culture of innovation and apply the process to real world business and organisational challenges.

Key Learning Outcomes

• Reposition innovation as a key growth engine for business model sustainability.
• Align innovation, business model design, and experimentation to your organisation’s success.
• Amplify a cultural environment conducive to innovation.
• Apply creative thinking to generate and lead new solutions
• Identify winning ideas and implement them effectively
• Prototyping to think and learn fast and test prototypes with customers
• Develop structured approach and skills to build and run experiments
• Make decisions and operate efficiently in chaos with insufficient data

Summit Day 1 - 25th March

08:45 Opening remarks from the Chair

9:00 AM: Welcome to Country

SESSION 1: HUMAN-CENTERED LEADERSHIP 9:10 AM: Leading with Empathy and Authenticity in an AI-Driven World

As technology accelerates, human connection becomes the most powerful differentiator. This session explores how leaders can use emotional intelligence, empathy, and authenticity to build trust, strengthen culture, and inspire performance in the age of AI.

10:00 AM:  IT’S TIME.....FOR NETWORKING!

10:30 AM: MORNING TEA

SESSION 2: FUTURE OF WORK AND LEADERSHIP 10:50 AM: Redefining Leadership for an AI-Enabled Workforce

Leadership is no longer about command and control. It is about guiding teams through uncertainty, building resilience, and cultivating creativity. Learn how leading organisations are rethinking leadership for an AI-enabled world, where adaptability and human judgment are more valuable than ever.

SESSION 3: FUTURE FRONTIERS KEYNOTE 11:50 AM: The Next Wave of Intelligent Innovation

12:40 PM: LUNCH

SESSION 4: CASE STUDY 1:40 PM: Putting People First in Digital Transformation

SESSION 5: PANEL DISCUSSION 2:40 PM: The Human Edge in Action

A diverse panel of leaders and innovators will explore what it takes to combine human creativity with artificial intelligence. They will share how they empower teams to thrive alongside new technologies, make ethical decisions under pressure, and foster collaboration across industries.

3:30 PM: AFTERNOON TEA

4:40 PM: CLOSE OF CONFERENCE

Summit Day 2 - 26th March

9:00 AM: Opening remarks from the Chair

SESSION 1 9:10 AM:  Human Leadership in an AI World

As intelligent technologies accelerate, leaders are faced with a new challenge: keeping humanity at the core of innovation. This keynote will explore how leaders can lead with trust, clarity, and adaptability, ensuring that people—not just machines—shape the future.

10:00 AM: MORNING TEA

SESSION 2: LEADERSHIP IN TRANSITION 10:50 AM: : Redefining Leadership for the AI-Enabled Workforce

SESSION 3: EXCLUSIVE KEYNOTE — THE NEXT FRONTIER 11:50 AM: Breakthroughs at the Edge of Innovation

From quantum computing to biotechnology, climate tech, and space innovation, the frontier of possibility is expanding every day. This keynote looks at the global breakthroughs shaping the next decade and provides leaders with a vision for where to place their bets now.

12:40 PM: LUNCH

SESSION 5: PANEL DISCUSSION — THE HUMAN EDGE IN ACTION 2:10 PM: Humans and AI Working Together

A diverse panel of global leaders will share how they are blending human creativity, strategic thinking, and AI-powered tools. Learn how they are overcoming cultural resistance, building cross-functional collaboration, and redefining what it means to innovate with both human and artificial intelligence.

3:30 PM: AFTERNOON TEA

SESSION 6: EXCLUSIVE KEYNOTE 3:50 PM: Innovation for Impact in an AI Future

The future is not only about speed and scale. It is about using innovation to drive ethical, sustainable, and human-centered outcomes. In this closing session, a visionary leader will inspire you to lead with purpose, ensuring that AI and frontier technologies serve humanity and create lasting impact

4:40 PM: END OF CONFERENCE

Post-Conference Workshops - 28th March

09:30 UNLEASHING CREATIVITY IN YOUR TEAMS AND WORKSHOPS

Ideas are the currency of any customer experience, innovation, technology, people or transformation program, yet most organisations and teams aren’t purposely set up to encourage creativity to flourish. In fact, often the way they are set up has the opposite effect and unintentionally kills creativity.

The masterclass provides a deep dive into the key barriers to individual and team creativity and how to overcome them. Plus, how to design and facilitate the ideation phase and workshops,
generate breakthrough ideas, harvest ideas for potential and turn these into experimentation briefs. Participants get lots of opportunities to practice and receive plenty of feedback and coaching.
In this interactive and experiential workshop, Nathan Baird shares his 20+ years of practicing, refining, honing, leading and training creative thinking and ideation on 100s of design and innovation projects and 1000s of workshops across multiple industries and continents.

We’ll provide you a learn by doing experience of:

• A demystification of creativity, ideation and innovation and how they help organisations succeed
• An understanding of the barriers to individual and team creativity and how to overcome them
• How to think creatively to generate new solutions and lead this in others
• A practical tool-kit, mindset, language and framework for creative problem-solving
• An increased energy and confidence around creativity and ideation
• The ability and confidence to lead creative thinking in any situation
• Comprehensive understanding of the crucial elements of creative mastery: beliefs, behaviours, lateral thinking, state, and space
• How to pick the winners, harvest ideas for potential and craft experimentation briefs
• Lots of practice doing and facilitating ideation
• How to create the right environment to lead and practice creativity on an every day basis
• Fun, engaging and good networking!